Rocking Papers, Scissors

When I was growing up I always loved crafting and the tools used for it. But coming from a humble background, things like crazy-shaped sharpeners and other fancy stationery were considered luxury items and we had to stick to the basics,” says Sonia Mehra Agarwal, 33, who promised herself that as an adult, she’d buy herself all the fancy stationery items she couldn’t as a child.

It was this which led her and her husband to co-found Inchpaper.com, an e-commerce start-up in June of this year, which supplies everything from basic stationery to the high-end (read fancy) products as well as teaching and learning aids for school and college going students, textbooks of various brands and promoters. It also caters to the needs of working professionals and corporates.

Pulak Agarwal, 36, coming from a similarly humble background was also a lover of the arts with a passion for Mandala painting. Family financial troubles led him to instead pursue a field in education, which is how he met Sonia and the two discovered their mutual love for stationery and eventually each other, marrying in 2014.

Sonia is a teacher-trainer, having trained over 20,000 teachers around the country, and helped set the academic curricula and assessment criteria for 40-45 schools. Pulak helped establish 80 schools and over 150 vocational training centres within India. Currently based in Gurugram, Inchpaper is delivers more than 15,000 products in over 50 Tier I and II cities and towns, and offers 24-hour delivery for orders within the NCR. “Outside Delhi-NCR, our largest sales are from Mumbai, Thane, Pune, and Jaipur, as these cities have been among the worst affected by the lockdown. Meaning either people can’t visit stores or supplies get disrupted,” explains Pulak.

To deliver quality products at reasonable prices, Inchpaper has developed a strong network of logistics partners, suppliers, and quality range of stationery products. “We want to be a one-stop shop for all your stationery and office supply needs, no matter where you are in India,” states Sonia, adding that they have already signed contracts with 12 corporates for the same.

Pulak notes that since the schools are still shut, Inchpaper has only gotten on board with one school so far. “So far, we have dealt mostly with private individuals, parents and guardians, and I am happy that we have had plenty of repeat orders. If you can get anything delivered anywhere in the country, from a Rs 10 item to Rs 10,000 worth of stuff, at a delivery fee of Rs 50, why wouldn’t any parent or company want that?” he concludes. And that’s just good math.